For Alex Rodriguez, it’s all over but the counting — of money, as in the $61 million the Yankees owe him through 2017, and of home runs, which will lead to more income through the milestone bonuses the Yankees guaranteed him two scandals ago.

Appearances, public relations, goodwill? They’re no longer his concern. So if A-Rod wants to work out with Barry Bonds as he prepares for his return to Major League Baseball, then he should work out with Barry Bonds.

“Alex has consulted numerous former players and coaches as he continues to work towards spring training, including most recently Edgar Martinez, who worked with him last week in Miami,” Ron Berkowitz, A-Rod’s spokesman, said in a statement. Berkowitz clarified that yes, Bonds ranked among those “numerous former players,” thereby confirming a report by The San Francisco Chronicle that two of Bud Selig’s least favorite people had joined forces.

Permission to write freely, there’s only one way Bonds can steer A-Rod wrong: by pointing the Yankee in a direction that will lead to another suspension, this one likely a lifetime sentence, for illegal performance-enhancing drug usage. Short of that, an alliance with Bonds can only help Rodriguez.

That’s because Bonds knows hitting. He also knows about the mental edge, and who better than Bonds to help A-Rod embrace his inner villain and not care what others think of him? Though Rodriguez seemed to be improving considerably in that area when we last saw him in 2013.

You can disparage and mock Bonds all you want. You even can keep him out of the Hall of Fame, if you’re a voter. But you can’t deny these realities:

1. He excelled at an advanced age like no one else in the game’s history.

2. If he was using illegal PEDs at that advanced age, which appears to be a great assumption, then he was far from the only one during that period. So his excellence still counts.

3. Baseball never disciplined him for any illegal PED transgression, and he is fully in the game’s good graces. He worked as a spring-training instructor for the Giants last year and threw out a ceremonial first pitch during the 2014 National League Championship Series at AT&T Park.

4. If a federal appeals court overturns Bonds’ 2011 obstruction of justice charge, which seems like a strong possibility, then Bonds’ official record on the matter of illegal PEDs will be as clean as his fellow elite scapegoat Roger Clemens. Spotless, in other words.

Consulting Bonds fits perfectly in the A-Rod playbook. This is a guy who loves to talk to people who dominate their field, whether it’s Pete Rose, Warren Buffet or Madonna. You can play amateur psychologist and say this characteristic reflects his insecurities, his need to gather information because he doesn’t trust himself. Regardless, there are gains to be had from this approach.

What he will never regain, not in the scenarios that can be envisioned, is the support of the vocal, finger-wagging moralists. No matter what he does. He has committed too many missteps, broken too many promises he never should have made in the first place.

Yet he can strengthen his hold on those who don’t buy into the hero model that baseball tries to promote. Who understand that A-Rod and Bonds are just as vital to the game’s survival as Derek Jeter and Mike Trout. This is just entertainment, after all.

Heck, how about A-Rod arranges for Bonds, Rose and Manny Ramirez to stand behind home plate in Steinbrenner Field, looking like the wise trio giving their approval to Luke at the end of “Return of the Jedi,” to bless A-Rod’s Grapefruit League return? Might as well milk this storyline for every last drop.

We don’t know if Bonds’ counsel will help A-Rod. All we know right now is this: It sure is awesome to have A-Rod back doing stuff like this.